


Hortus

by theoceanpath



Series: Constellations Dance on Your Skin [4]
Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Gen, This is what quarantine does to you folks, references to Greek mythology
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:55:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 945
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24053224
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoceanpath/pseuds/theoceanpath
Summary: The Underworld stretches on forever, vast and dark and hostile to life. The Fairy of Spring comes to change that.
Series: Constellations Dance on Your Skin [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1507754
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	Hortus

The ivory swan unfolds its wings, showering glittery dust across the eons. There is a story to tell, one of sky and earth and the graveyard of stars and those who tend to it.

The swan lands on the ice and breathes on it and the surface cleaves and the fractals rise together in the words of a tale long forgotten.

* * *

Evergreen needles turn to frost as Otoñal alights on the northern forests. Bark turns to stone when it touches his toes.

He watches the monarch of darkness watch winter's descent upon the land. Nature takes its course, but a Spring Fairy stubbornly attempts to preserve the last blossom. The cold spell has muted its bright salmon hues to mottled brown, and soon it too will follow its summer kin back to the earth.

There is a distinct frown on Origin's face. He stretches out his arms and pulls forth a being of shadows from the depths of his realm.

It is a flower, dark amethyst with a pale lavender center, a replacement for the one the changing seasons took away. He plucks the unfading bloom and lays it by the Spring Fairy's feet.

Origin leaves without a word.

Otoñal follows.

* * *

Otoñal wakes up to the smell of peaches.

The Spring Fairy is in the Underworld today.

Origin glowers at the solid granite flooring. It never bothered him before. The Spring Fairy never ventured here before. Otoñal puts two and two together and decides a few more maple forests are in need of an extra splash of gold.

* * *

"The earth is split into three dominions, governed by three brothers. The Celestial Warrior, ruler of the sky. He embodies dignity, bravery, and nobility," Haru recites. "The Dream Song, king of the ocean. He possesses fortitude, patience, and endurance surpassing all."

They keep walking. Haru wears shoes now, for there is no soft earth to cushion his feet.

"And you? What do you have to offer, O Emperor of Shadows?"

Origin's eyes betray no regrets. "None but this vast eternity."

Haru smiles. "I'll take it."

* * *

Origin gazes at the the legless moon as it lumbers up endless marble stairs on its path to the sky. Up there it is graceful as it soars, higher and higher in the next movement of its eternal dance.

It gives him an idea.

He brings Haru a gift. It's a white bird, the color of clouds and swans and pure snow.

Haru coos at it.

It chirps back.

Haru nicknames it their snow fairy and it follows him wherever he goes.

* * *

The following week, Haru has still not discovered a good spot for a garden. Everywhere he's been to is either too dark or too cold. He vows to continue searching.

In the meantime he collects gems and explores caves and wishes for an ice rink.

Why the Fairy of Spring desires such a thing baffles Origin, but he seeks the help of the Autumn Sprite, dweller of crossroads, guardian of the Fountain of Memory.

Otoñal picks a lake and freezes it. The next day a masked messenger delivers a pair of boots with sawtoothed blades.

* * *

At last Haru gets to work on his garden. Everywhere is solid rock and no soil but he finds a nice-sized crevice by the river and throws in the decayed petals that once clung to his robe and plants a seed. He pours water and waits and hopes it will be enough.

Nothing grows.

Nothing.

Haru buries his face in his hands in disappointment.

Origin's boots clack on the marble courtyard. His dark robes have shifted to violet, with tendrils of gold and diamonds, rubies, and the riches of the earth.

Haru thinks of the vines of his mother's garden and sighs.

"Nothing grows here? Nothing at all?"

He hears the desperation in his own voice. It's foreign to him. He has changed a lot.

"Asphodels," the Emperor of Shadows assures him. "And pomegranates."

Haru remembers the lone pale violet bloom at the end of summer and decides he doesn't want them.

* * *

When Spring comes Haru leaves the Underworld for a week and brings back a squirrel.

"You forgot the acorns," Origin points out.

"I will grow some," he declares.

Origin sips his tea.

Before he leaves he says, "You know it doesn't work. The earth is as bare as it always has been. For all eternity."

Haru returns to the surface the next morning and doesn't come back for a month.

* * *

Origin waits.

He remembers to water his pomegranates everyday.

He orders the shades to pulverize chunks of shale ore in hopes of recreating soil.

He has nothing else to offer.

* * *

Haru comes back.

This time he takes a lotus plant to the Underworld.

"Here there is no soil. But there is water. Maybe it will survive."

Origin pours sand into the pond bottom.

Against all odds, the lotus grows.

Haru leaves again.

* * *

It is nearly autumn in the surface world. Haru appears unexpectedly, bearing a tree sapling in his sun-flushed arms.

"I hope this will grow too," he says. "It's special. I created it myself. So the pomegranates won't be lonely."

"What is that?" Origin asks, fresh from his daily stroll by the lotus pond, the asphodel fields, and the dark rose bush that mysteriously sprung up in the courtyard.

Haru is smiling again. The fields and forests above have been good for his health.

"A cherry blossom."

* * *

Years later, Otoñal awakens and the air is filled with the scent of a hundred sakura buds.

He watches Origin watch the plump little snow fairy bird perched on its branches. The squirrel throws acorns that fail to reach it. Haru Yo Koi hums along.


End file.
